HDTV - high-definition television: it is something that has been discussed for some time now, however not everyone has a strong sense of what it is and why he or she would want to have it.
Because all television stations will be required to broadcast a digital signal after February 17, 2009, many viewers are beginning to ask a lot more questions about how the new digital age of television will affect their personal viewing experience. They want to know whether or not their television set will be compatible, whether or not they will have to replace it, and what steps they will have to take in order to keep watching their favorite shows.
How To Identify If Your Television Is An Analog TV
Analog television has been with us since the inception of television broadcasting. Analog is the old way of processing a television signal.
Television technology took a big leap in the 1960's with the transition from television tubes to circuit boards, but that conversion failed to bring with it any major strides in the quality of the television picture.
If your current television does not have a logo on its front that indicates DTV (Digital TV), EDTV (Enhanced Definition TV), or HDTV, then your television set is an analog TV.
Understanding The Transition From An Analog Signal To The New Digital Signal
Digital image processing is a technology that began in earnest during the 1970's, when Japanese technology companies began to explore the concepts of HDTV. The Japanese TV manufacturers were exploring ways to improve the picture quality of the television image, as a way to find more customers for their television products.
While Americans were busy playing with building the computer industry, the Japanese were hard at work trying to build a better television set. The first HDTV systems developed by the Japanese still relied on the old analog system of sending a broadcast signal to their televisions, but they were still able to produce a better television viewing experience.
When initially introduced to the U.S. Government, the new HDTV system produced a myriad of concerns, which included the issue of an analog HDTV-system needing more bandwidth than what was currently allotted to the television broadcasters.
In 1993, a consortium of American researchers and manufacturers (known as The Grand Alliance) joined forces to find a way to bring HDTV-quality to the American public, while keeping the bandwidth requirements of broadcasters within the existing limits.
Researchers soon understood that they would need to push at least part of the television signal in a digital format to make sure that HDTV could be transmitted within the limits currently allotted to the television broadcasters. By the time they had finished their work, the Grand Alliance had created a system that was 100% Digital.
In 1995, after considerable opposition from the television broadcast industry, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission officially set the standard for completely digital HDTV broadcasting system. This put into motion the events that are just now coming to fruition, with the rollout of the new Digital Television broadcasting system.
Although most television stations have been broadcasting a Digital Television Signal now for a few years, analog television owners have been none the wiser. But that will all change on February 17, 2009.
